Transmeta Unveils New Efficeon

Transmeta is setting up its next-generation Efficeon
processors to run roughly at double the speed and half the wattage of its
current designs.

At the Fall Processor Forum in Silicon Valley this week,
the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker demonstrated two new
90-nanometer TM8800 (Efficeon) chips -- 1.6 GHz and 2.0 GHz -- that only use
3 watts of power. Previous versions like the 0.13-micron Efficeon TM8600
reached speeds of 1.0 GHz at a maximum power of 7 watts.

Although Transmeta got its start targeting low-power mobile applications,
it recently broadened its scope to appeal to OEMs looking for more processor
efficiency (i.e. a better balance of low-power consumption, high
performance, low cost, and small size).

The Transmeta Efficeon processor, in
particular, targets the low-end blade and high-end workstation market,
as well as mobile, wireless and embedded devices. It is slated for a wide range of
environments, including thin-and-light notebook computers, mainstream
notebooks, tablet PCs, BladePCs, cluster workstations and fanless media
centers.

The processors are also suitable for smaller form factors like
ultra-personal computers (UPCs), which are being championed by companies
like OQO, and features three high-performance bus interfaces.

Transmeta said the next version of the Efficeon will support the new
x86 instruction extensions for multimedia and video processing known as
"SSE-3."

Using Fujitsu's advanced 90nm CMOS technology, the Efficeon TM8800 uses a
Northbridge chipset design that includes a DDR400 memory controller and AGP
4X graphics interface and connects to other chips through a HyperTransport
bus.

The chips include what Transmeta calls AntiVirusNX technology. The
Data Execution Protection feature debuted in Microsoft's Windows XP Service
Pack 2 and has been adopted by Intel and AMD.
Among other benefits, the hardware/software technology was designed to
prevent common buffer overflow-style attacks.

Critics contend Transmeta's designs even prompted Intel and AMD to
reinvest in their fanless and low-power technologies.

"There is no doubt that Intel and AMD collectively own the server chip
space," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst of the San Jose, Calif.-based
Enderle Group. "But Transmeta has released some products for the low
end."

HP is one OEM pleased to be using Efficeon chips. The
processor is an integral part of its Consolidated Client Infrastructure
architecture, where it uses blade racks to virtualize desktop hardware. By
moving PC processing, storage and networking from the desktop to the data
center, HP said its backup, maintenance and management functions are
simplified and that its saves clients up to $1,200 per user, per year in
total costs.

According to Greg Rose, director of segment marketing at Transmeta, by
using the Transmeta processor, HP can pack 280 blades into one 42U rack
(i.e. 20 processors per 3U modular enclosure, 14 per rack).

Another OEM using Transmeta chips is Orion Multisystems of Santa Clara,
Calif. Orion is using
the Efficeon in a supercomputer designed primarily for the scientific,
high-computing power workstation market. As one of its specs was to be able
to use a standard wall unit, the company harnessed clustered Efficeon
processors to keep the heat rate down.

Transmeta's Rose said more OEM partnerships should be announced in the
next couple of weeks.

Despite these and other gains for Transmeta in the server and high-end
workstation market, it remains to be seen whether the chip's ability to
maximize operations per-watt, per-dollar translates into server market share
in the long term.

The chips are being manufactured at Fujitsu Electronic Devices Group's
Akiruno Technology Center near Tokyo. The 1.6 GHz Efficeon is already in
limited production and shipping in Sharp's new PC-MP50G and PC-MP70G
notebook computers in Japan. The 2.0 GHz is scheduled for later this year.